Royal first as Zara is awarded MBE

Zara Phillips topped off a year of remarkable sporting success by becoming the first senior royal to receive an award in the New Year's Honours List.

Just three weeks after being crowned BBC Sports Personality of the Year, Phillips has been handed an MBE for services to equestrianism.

The 25-year-old, who lives on Princess Anne's Gatcombe Park Estate, near Stroud, Gloucestershire, will be handed the gong by her grandmother, the Queen, at Buckingham Palace. "It's been the best 18 months of my sporting life," she said.

"I'm honoured I've been recognised for my achievements in equestrianism and pleased British Eventing nominated me. I'm delighted for the sport."

The MBE caps an amazing year for Phillips, who won gold at the World Equestrian Games in Germany in August, 11 months after winning the European title. Her performance also helped Britain win the team silver. She became only the third rider in the sport's history to hold world and European titles at the same time.

Phillips won the BBC Sports Personality of the Award by a landslide public vote in December - after charming viewers with her modest, laid-back attitude to her success. The 11th in line to the throne's nomination was put forward by the sporting honours sub-committee, which includes sporting heroes Sir Bobby Robson, Matthew Pinsent, Ian McGeechan and Tessa Sanderson.

The committee approved the award but reportedly sought the advice of the royal household amid concern the Queen would breach protocol by presenting it to her granddaughter. But Buckingham Palace said there was no protocol issues surrounding a royal receiving an honour.

Phillips emulated the success of both her mother, the Princess Royal, and her rugby star boyfriend Mike Tindall in 2006.

She won the Sports Personality of the Year, 35 years after Princess Anne won the coveted trophy, and can now boast an MBE to match Tindall's, who was awarded the gong for his part in England's 2003 World Cup victory.

Phillips, who lives in a cottage with Tindall on her mother's estate, also became a royal groundbreaker this year when she became the first royal in direct line to the throne to appear in an advert. She was paid a six-figure sum to front a Land Rover advertising campaign wearing a mud-splattered Roberto Cavalli dress and high heels. Recent reports suggest the young Royal and Tindall, who started dating three years ago, are considering marriage.